Seven Minutes in Hell
by Lady Mythology
Summary: Damon's taking full responsibility for newborn Vampire Elena. A bunch of one-shots from a baby vampires perspective. Never ending hunger, itchy eyes, aching teeth, short attention spans, distracting paintings, and wanting to eat your brother?
1. Eat My Brother

Just a little exercise. Newborn-ish Vampire Elena. Damon's trying to help her out.

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><p>"We make vampires for four reasons."<p>

What?

Damon wasn't talking to me. He was focusing his gaze on Caroline, and she was just as confused as I was.

"We make vampires for four reasons," he said. "Obviously, love. Sometimes we need people to do our dirty work. Other times?" He shrugged, and leaned back against the couch. "We're bored."

We waited, but that was it. I sighed out all the air in my lungs and carefully took another breath. I –

"Can you not count to four?" Caroline snapped.

"Revenge."

"What?"

"Revenge." He was trying to be casual, but, for once in his life, failed. "If you weren't important to Elena, I wouldn't care about you. I didn't give you my blood to turn you; I gave it to heal you. Not for you, not for your mom, not for Bonnie, but for _Elena_. I don't _love _you, I don't need you to do my dirty work – I like doing my own, thank you very much – and I wasn't _bored_. Katherine killed you for revenge.

"I fed you my blood because you meant too much to Elena to lose. I tried to kill you after you turned because you could have hurt Elena. I rescued you from Klaus – for Elena. It sucks, that Stefan was there for you. Your only other bet would have been _me_. And, sorry, Blondie, but there's no way you'll ever live up to _my _standards."

Was Damon apologizing?

"What are you trying to say?"

"I hope you find it."

"Find what?"

I don't know what Damon was doing, but it was starting to not-work.

"Your light. Your reason to get up in the morning, to go to sleep at night. Your reason to live your… undead life. Your reason to _try_. To _care_. Your hope, Barbie. You may find it hard to believe, but my number of turns in shockingly low. No matter how much I like and accept who I am, I wouldn't wish this life on anybody. Not even the one I love."

Maybe that's what it was: a distraction.

Jeremy shifted in his bed upstairs, and I clenched my fist on the couch. On my other arm, Damon ghosted his fingers over my palm.

"Her brother is upstairs." Don't remind me. "Your brother is upstairs," he repeated, fingers still dancing across my skin. "Who do you know wants to eat their brother?"

I wanted to scowl, but schooled my features. I knew that if I scowled I would only hiss. And with my fangs down, ready to defend myself, the blood would be even _more_.

More powerful, more sensual, more… enveloping.

Fuck.

I clamped my teeth shut, squeezed my eyes until I saw spots, and turned my head away from Damon and Caroline.

Damon grabbed my hand and ran his fingers gently over my knuckles. Distraction.

"I wouldn't change Elena, I wouldn't change you, not for the world… but that doesn't mean I want you to go through this. Hey. Shh."

I tore my hand from his but only to bury my face in a pillow. "Shut up." Instead, he just pulled me onto his lap.

"What are you trying to say?" Caroline asked.

"I'm sorry you have to see Elena like this. Not for what she's becoming, I'll never be sorry for that, but I'm sorry that you have to see how a real sire acts."

"Damon. You're letting your humanity show. It suits you."

"Hey, no. Shh." He carefully took the pillow from my face and took my hands in his, stopping me from scratching under my eyes. "You're bleeding. Stop that."

"It itches."

"Shh."

"It itches and burns and hurts and _make it stop_."

"Shh."

"You hurt, too," Caroline said, and Damon shoved my face into the crook of his neck.

I dug my nails into my palms, but he only stopped that, too. "No, no, no, I don't want you to hurt yourself. Please, Elena."

"I don't want to hurt Jeremy." I panted, resting my forehead against his collarbone. "I don't want to hurt you." Could he feel my cheeks rippling against his chest?

"You're a baby. How could you hurt me?"

_Do you have no idea how good you smell_? Jeremy, Damon, Jeremy, Damon… Jeremy or Damon? Matt. Jeremy, Damon, Matt. "Keep distracting me."

"So you saw through this, too," Damon said, and I could sense the smirk.

"Were you _not _trying to apologize to Caroline?"

"No. I didn't _try _to. That's… how it happened to go."

"I never knew what you meant by 'your humanity'."

"Elena…"

"It's like." I froze. "What's wrong?"

Jeremy's heart picked up, and I didn't mean just a little bit. It went from slow, cathartic, forty two beats per minutes, to frantic at almost one and a half full beats in a second.

Jeremy smelled like dinner. He smelled like coal and paper and oil pants, like his favorite kind of chocolate, like a dry wine paired with a hint of rum. He shouldn't be _drinking_.

And books – like a library. Damon compared me with a library on several occasions. Maybe… maybe I could use it as a familiar connection –

His heart beat even stronger – nope. Dinner, not family. A human heart was beating just over two full beats a _second_ – why wasn't it _mine_?

I was straining against Damon before I realized it; it was like I was struggling against a rock. He gave none and I wrestled and struggled and kicked and strained but –

"Why are you just sitting there!" He was sitting there, too calmly, while I did everything possible to try and eat my brother.

He laughed, but that only caused my anger to rise. "You're a baby. Your attempts at escape are almost pathetic."

I pulled back and hissed at him.

Through the pounding in my ears, Jeremy's heart slowed down to a normal pace. "Nightmare," Damon said. "I made it go away."

"That's a thing?" Caroline asked.

"Maybe if you're _really _nice, I'll teach you, too," Damon said.

Now that Jeremy's heartbeat was safely within his bedroom – _and not in the living room, with me _– I felt mortified.

Damon's hand cradled my face like it was glass. "Hey. You're beautiful."

I closed my eyes, and willed tears that never came. "I want to cry – so badly."

"Eat human food."

"What?"

"Hey, look at me, sweetie."

"My face…"

"It's beautiful," Damon said.

"It's my vampire face," I mourned.

"It is _not _your vampire face, Elena Gilbert! Eyes and fangs be damned!"

I tried to make my teeth go away, but that wasn't happening, not with Damon so close.

Jeremy smelled like dinner but Damon… Damon smelled like… more. Dinner, sure, but _more_.

Leather, even when his jacket was off, and two kinds of leather: his Italian leather and leather and me. He was wrapped in an ever-present air of bourbon, and a faint ghost of… cigars? A deep, spicy smoke, but only a hint. Maybe. And –

"What about human food?"

"Look at me."

It took me a few minutes, but I finally did, perching on Damon's knees. "What about human food?"

"The more human you act, the more human perks you get."

"Human perks?"

"Now that I'm drinking more than A negative, my nails are growing again, and so is my hair. I can cry now. I have to shave again. Ugh. I missed brushing my teeth one night and _regretted _it in the morning. My skin feels all soft again."

"My nails won't grow?"

"Not unless you need them to," she said. "We're vampires. Vampires don't really need nails."

"But I can cry?" I asked eagerly, smiling even through my fangs, giddy.

"You can cry," Damon said, chuckling, pulling me back, tucking my head under his chin. I snuggled backwards.

_Mine_.

Hungry to ashamed to embarrassed, embarrassed to turned on, to desperate, _dangerous_, devastated, embarrassed, again, turned on, again, curious, elated, content.

All of that… all of that in, like, five minutes.

I sighed, worn out.

"Why would you hurt me?"

Sedated, I entwined our fingers, breathing from his wrist to his elbow before dropping our hands. I felt like I had just ran a mile.

"So glad I can't blush," I admitted.

"I think Elena's "seven minutes in hell" has been a success," Damon teased.

"It gets easier," Caroline said.

"But it never goes away," I finished.

She smiled sadly. "But it gets better. Damon won't let anything happen to you, either."

"I know."

We walked to the door, and I hesitated at his car while Caroline walked – ran? – home.

"Hate to break it to you, Elena." I looked over at Damon, concern plagued by vampire features. "Vampires don't only like to bite – we like to be bitten, _too_."


	2. Bloody Roses

Technically set before chapter one.

"Vicki," I hissed. "_No_."

I looked over at the group of people. I didn't want to do this to myself, let alone any of _them_.

Vicki: soft chocolate curls, big eyes, high cheekbones; smelling of cigars, cheap perfume, and money. Matt's big sister, the only thing he had left. The only one I'd smelled before.

I breathed out until there wasn't enough air to talk, insisting, "No."

"I still think a girl is best," Stefan insisted. "The opposite sex you find yourself attracted to. So you only have hunger, not hunger and sex." I crossed my arms and glared at one of the paintings on the wall.

Stupid mistake. I inhaled a sigh. We were in the hallway to the kitchen. It was just a bowlful of fruit. It looked completely unrealistic but I could see each brush stroke: some stuttered, some were fluid; I could see where they started and stopped, and I was able to break down different colors that blended together. And the wood… the wood frame was polished so well that it was shining. I reached a finger out, intent on finding out if it was just as smooth as it looked. I'm sure my finger can find a flaw.

"Elena."

I turned my glare on Damon. "Damn it."

"It's okay-"

"Shut up." As a vampire, I saw things differently. I was able to make out the emotions that fluttered across Damon's face. Damn it. "Do we not know _any _other females who are in on this little 'vampire' secret?"

Damon and I lost our bond, but not quite at the same time. I knew when he was in trouble (oh God, did I know), but he could feel almost everything I was going through, because it was that extreme. I hadn't been close to calm for anything, but, supposedly, any vampires 'close enough' (brothers?) could somehow communicate. Through feelings? Emotions? Thoughts? I had a feeling Damon and Stefan were having one of those moments right now.

I blinked and Stefan was gone.

I blinked again and I was in front of the painting, Damon's chest against my back. Carefully, he brought my hand up to the picture, feeling the painting. "Do you see any brush hairs?"

"What?"

"See how the orange blends in to yellow, here?" He trailed my fingers over the colors he was talking about, and then over a different part. "Feel the difference?" He did it a few more times.

"Yeah," I breathed. "What-"

"You can see it," he said. "The paint brush left one hair."

"Wow." Now that my fingers had found it, my eyes zeroed in on it. "Jesus. It's beautiful."

"It is." He rested his chin on my shoulder, and then brought my hand up to the frame. "Salvatore's are good cleaners. You won't find more polished wood. Except maybe the Louvre." My finger did, in fact, _not _find a flaw...

"Will you take me?"

He inhaled sharply. I could feel the air changing against my neck, and Damon trailed the fingers of his other hand up my arm, dancing across bare skin, messing with the fine hairs. I never would have felt that, before. "I would love to."

"Why is it so pretty?"

"It's always been pretty," he whispered against my ear. "You have all the time in the world, now, to soak up beauty."

"Why are you whispering?"

"You want me to talk?"

"No," I breathed. "God, no."

"Hey. Lovebirds." I felt a stab in my chest and ached for Jenna. He must have noticed my face. "Excuse me. Hey. Elena and _Dick_." Jenna was the one to refer to us as the lovebirds. Ric now referred to Damon as 'Dick' or 'Elena's ass'. "Are we going to do this or not? I'm still a teacher! I have papers to grade!"

"How about you just stamp an 'F' on all of them and call it a day?"

"Tried that once," Ric said with a grin. "Just as fun as you think."

Damon pulled back just enough to look down at me. "I'm impressed."

"Where'd Stefan go?" Jeremy asked.

My mind jumped back to our conversation. I extracted myself from his hold and crossed my arms. This time, his face was blank, but I knew I had missed seeing the hurt plastered on it. "I'm already distracted enough as is, okay?" Here, he smirked. "Seriously. Who's another girl in on this whole vampire-secret?"

"I volunteered," Vicki said.

Before I could move, or even think of moving, Damon had a hand on my shoulder. That's all I needed.

"I… I can't, Vicki," I said. "Please."

"You're doing okay now," she said.

Damon let me walk forward, right to the invisible barrier. It didn't keep a vampire locked in a room; it was a nice modification. Bonnie had gotten a hold of her magic. She simply made an invisible barrier to vampires. A vampire would have to run out of the house, to the edge of the invisible wall that none of us knew how far it went, and around it. _If _that happened, Caroline, Tyler, and Bonnie could have Vicki and all the other humans safe, or protected. They all had a stake. They were all on vervain. They all _had _vervain darts.

The other cool part about Bonnie's barrier…

I put a hand on it, and felt a solid wall of nothing.

It not only stopped _me _from going over to their side, but it stopped smells and sounds as well. I was able to stand across from Vicki, Jeremy, and Ric without wanting to tear their heads off. We could talk, but little sounds, like heartbeats, I couldn't hear, and the intoxicating scent of their blood was safely locked on the other side.

Damon wanted to jump on my vampire training, just shy of a week after transition. Stefan thought it crazy. That meant being around humans without wanting to rip their heads off. I pulled my hand off the invisible wall and frowned at the floor. I wanted to glare and grumble and be even angrier than I was. Only one thing was holding me back.

My face.

I looked identical to Katherine, and my fangs and bloodshot eyes only made things creepier.

"Hey," Damon whispered. The cool part was… this thing worked both ways. If Damon and I talked quietly enough, Bonnie's side couldn't hear what was said. "Hey. Elena. Look at me." When I didn't, his finger was under my chin, making me look up. "It's okay." He held my face like glass; I could barely feel him, even with my heightened senses. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"I'm more worried about them," I admitted.

"And that means _you_, by extension."

"Where'd Stefan go?" Ric said, taking Jeremy's question.

I let my head fall against my back. "Why am I _so _easily distracted?"

"It's the vampire in you, sweetie," Caroline said. "It doesn't get easier, but you'll get used to it."

"But seriously," Jeremy asked. "Where did he go?"

Even I looked at Damon. "How should I know?"

"You did that weird look-talk-thing," I accused. But I closed my eyes and tried to think.

Who all knew about us? Everyone here in the boarding house. The counsel…

I gasped and tried not to hiss, "Liz?"

"No offense, Caroline," Damon drawled. "But your mother is _not _the best person to be helping a newbie vamp."

"None taken. Been there, done that, got the shirt."

"Hey. That reminds me." Jeremy walked over to his backpack and pulled something out. "Saw this, thought of you."

He tossed whatever it was and it went through the barrier like it wasn't even there. I had to check, just to make sure. I picked the black blob up, and it turned out to be a shirt.

"Seriously? Team Jacob? What, are you trying to pair me with _Tyler_, now?"

"Hey..."

"You'd rather be Team Sparkly-Vampire instead?" I rolled my eyes. "Here." I was ready and caught this one. Before I could say anything on the other shirt, the door opened.

"Hi."

"Uhm." She was looking right at me. "No."

"What's better that and a girl _and _a doctor?" Stefan said, ushering at Dr. Fell.

"Uh. Vampire blood?"

"Well-"

"Vicki or Meredith," Damon said. The next second, my hands were pinned behind my back in one of Damon's. Ric looked uneasy, and Tyler glanced away, but everyone wanted to be here. I don't know if they wanted to be here for me, for moral support, or in case something went wrong. No matter all the hell Matt and Vicki went through, they still hadn't given up on me, even though I was now a vampire.

"You've never seen a baby vampire." This was going to be bad, Damon warned them. "She's going to say a lot of things she actually means." That's why I had been holed up at the boarding house and no one had been able to see me until Bonnie put this wall up. I didn't even know a witch, five humans, two vampires, and a hybrid were on the other side; they were all my friends. Family. People I cared about. It didn't seem possible that they… that they would smell good. That I would want to hurt them. They were so innocent, on the other side, that…

"I won't let anything happen to you," Caroline said, stepping behind Meredith. Instead of holding her hands behind her back, like Damon was doing to me, Caroline actually had a firm grasp on her arms.

Caroline walked Meredith forward until Caroline herself could no longer go forward. It took a second, but eventually Meredith's scent traveled the air, straight to my nose. First, it was just her smell. I don't know why I was surprised, but she smelled like a hospital. Like disinfectant, Lysol, bleach, and paint. Like nothing and everything. Like woodchips and roses, fake roses.

And then blood. Sweet, sweet blood. I couldn't stop it. My eyes itched and burned and my teeth felt wrong. I couldn't stop _me_. Not just the vampire, but I wanted it, too. I wanted her so badly I could taste it. The hollow ache my teeth gave off only got worse the longer I smelled her.

"Shh."

That wasn't an understatement. The smell of blood was so strong, I could taste its copper tang. I wanted nothing more, in that moment, than her blood. Than her _life_.

"Elena."

I knew that was Damon's voice, but I didn't care. I _did_ care that both of his hands were keeping my body firmly where it was. I struggled. I struggled and kicked and flailed, did everything to get that sweet, sweet elixir. He was keeping me from my dinner! He was supposed to be on my side! Not... not hinder me, not protecting the petty human.

I hissed and bared my teeth. I hiss in anger, at Damon, and in hunger, at Meredith. I clawed my fingernails into skin, not caring if it was mine or his. If it was mine, I couldn't feel it; the bloodlust was too much.

How quickly could I drain her? What would her blood taste like? Would she taste like roses, too? Would her blood be smooth, like Damon's, or blech like the blood bags? Would she put up a struggle? Would she just cave in? How easily would my fangs pierce her skin? Where was the best place to bite? Would the neck taste different than the wrist?

"Elena."

I elbowed him, and I heard his 'oof' of surprise, but his hold never loosened.

"Shh."

"Don't tell me to shush!" I hissed.

"Look behind her."

"There is nothing other than her."

"Shh. Listen to my voice."

"I'm so hungry, Damon."

"Shh." His arms went around my waist, hugging me to him, and his chin balanced on my still struggling shoulder. "Don't focus on her."

"There is no one but her. Blood, Damon. Her blood. Please." My whole body ached with need; I was not above begging. "Please."

"What does she smell like?"

"Dinner."

"No. What does she smell like, Elena?"

"Food. Blood. Copper. Metal. Tang. Food. So hungry."

"What else?"

"Nothing else. Just-" Something hit me. "Roses."

"What kind of roses?"

"Bloody roses."

"No. What kind of Roses, Elena?"

"Fake." My eyes found the pulse in her neck, and her heart was beating so fast, too fast, beating just for me. "Please."

"Does it smell like cheap perfume?"

"So hungry. Please. Please, please, please."

"Elena. What kind of roses?"

"Fake. Fake roses. Not like the ones outside."

"Which ones, outside? In the front or in the back?"

"There are roses in the back?"

"Look at Caroline."

My tunnel vision of strictly dinner went away, and I could suddenly see Caroline. Her face said a lot of things, but before I could decipher any of them… "She's holding my dinner, Damon," I said, anger dripping off my voice. "Make her give it back."

"Caroline is here. And so is Tyler. Stupid mutt can't go anywhere without his girl, can he?"

"What?"

"Bonnie, too." His voice dropped to a whisper, so quiet that I had to strain to hear him. "Remember what Bonnie's doing? Why you can't smell her? Or Tyler?"

"So hungry," I cried. "Don't make me think. I hurt, Damon. My teeth, they hurt. My eyes itch. You're hurting me."

"Shh."

"My stomach is hollow. I can feel it. I can feel the nothing. I can feel the hunger gnawing at my stomach." He was holding me, now, my head in his chest, so all that I could see was the blackness of his shirt. "And she'll make it go away, Damon, I know she will. Please. Just - _please_."

"Elena."

"Please." I curled my hand on his shirt, digging my nails into his chest. "It hurts. I hurt. Whatever's left, in me, is running through my body like fire. Pins and needles. Razor blades are running through my veins. I'm so hungry."

"The blood isn't so strong, is it?"

It wasn't... "You let my dinner get away!"

"I did, now?"

Suddenly, he held a bottle of blood in his hands. "No." I gagged and tried to turn my head away, but he didn't let me get very far. "Don't wanna feel sick."

"Shh." He screwed off the top. "Doesn't it smell familiar?"

"Don't wanna be sick."

"Elena. Smell it."

I didn't want to, but I couldn't help it.

Copper. Metal. Tang.

"Roses."

"Meredith _just _gave you this." I glanced around his body.

"You let my dinner get away," I hissed, quietly. I was startled when she gave a weak little smile and wave. "Why is my dinner waving at me? Why is she _happy_?"

"Because you didn't kill her."

"I would have if you had _let _me."

"Elena. Look at her arm."

"I want her _neck_."

"I said, _look at her arm!_"

I was taken back at his tone, but did as he demanded. There was a tube in her elbow, and my precious, delicious, warm food was running into a little bottle, like the one Damon was holding.

"Give me my dinner, Damon."

"Someone needs to learn her manners."

"Dinner, _now_, Damon. Or _you _become dinner."

He raised an eyebrow. "If you think that's a serious threat to another vampire, you are sorely mistaken."

"Damon. Give me my dinner, _now_, or I'll snap your neck and _hunt her down_."

"Say please." I didn't give. "You think you can move an inch unless I wanted you to? Give it up. Say, please, Damon. Or, I'm sorry, Meredith."

I cringed. "When did you go soft?"

"When my girlfriend became a homicidal maniac.

That sentence carried so much weight. I was a girlfriend – Damon was _mine_. I was _Damon's _girl. I was a killer who'd do anything, to anybody, who got in my way, and I would relish in it.

It also brought back my humanity. If I could have blushed, I would have. I remembered every word...

"I'm sorry, Meredith," I whisper, then repeated it louder since she wouldn't have been able to hear the first one. "I'm sorry, Damon."

"Why?"

"Please."

"Elena." He held my face in his hands, firmer than normal. "Why are you sorry?"

"I remember every word," I said, and my hands framed his face as well. "I remember every word of it, and there are only two things I regret. I don't want her dead. And. And, I'm sorry I was mad at you." I pulled back a little, tried to immitate his haughty smirk. "You took my dinner."

"Say please."

"_Please_."

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><p>I have a few more ideas, but if there's anything you'd like to hear, from a baby vampire's perspective...<p> 


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